Economist Laura Tyson inspires a tough new policy toward Japan

When the Clinton Administration last week uncorked a tough new approach aimed at cracking Japan's trade barriers to computers, auto parts and other imports, top officials in Tokyo immediately rejected the policy as "unrealistic." To which Laura D'Andrea Tyson, chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, calmly remarked to a colleague, "That's good. It shows they fear that we're on to something that will get results."

Or so Tyson hopes. The new policy, which demands that Japan increase imports of specific products and services, is inspired in large part by her provocative ideas and research, as laid out in her...